assembly - stoa assembly convened the very next morning (dem. ... nd english edition (methuen, ......

Christopher W. Blackwell, e Assembly, in C. Blackwell, ed., Dmos: Classical Athenian Democracy (A. Mahoney and R. Scaife, Dmos: Classical Athenian Democracy (A. Mahoney and R. Scaife, Dmos: Classical Athenian Democracyedd., e Stoa: a consortium for electronic publication in the humanities [www.stoa.org], . , C.W. Blackwell.

is is a version of an electronic document, part of the series, Dmos: Clas-sical Athenian Democracy, a publication of sical Athenian Democracy, a publication of sical Athenian Democracy e Stoa: a consortium for electronic publication in the humanities [www.stoa.org]. e electronic version of this article off ers contextual information intended to make the study of Athenian democracy more accessible to a wide audience. Please visit the site at http://www.stoa.org/projects/demos/home.

e AssemblyS e Assembly () was the regular gathering of male Athenian citizens (women also enjoyed the status of

citizen, but without political rights) to listen to, discuss, and vote on decrees that aff ected every aspect of Athenian life, both public and private, from fi nancial matters to reli-gious ones, from public festivals to war, from treaties with foreign powers to regulations governing ferry boats.

I e Assembly () was the regular opportunity for all male citizens of Athens to speak their minds and exer-cise their votes regarding the government of their city. It was the most central and most defi nitive institution of the Athenian Democracy. Before , the Court of the Ar-eopagus controlled legislation in Athens, but in that year Ephialtes instituted a reform that diminished the power of the Areopagus and increased the power of the Assembly of the people (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .; Aristot. Ath. Pol. .;


Plut. Cim. .; Plut. Per. .). is Assembly became syn-onymous with democracy. When Aristotle describes how democratic government was restored a er Sparta defeated Athens in he says that this restoration happened when the People became sovereign over aff airs ( ) (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). Under this government, he says, the People administers all business by decrees and by law-courts ( ) (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). When Aristotle mentions the People and government by decrees, he is describing the Assembly.

In the Assembly each male citizen of Athens could speak, regardless of his station. e orator Aeschines says that the herald (), acting as a sergeant-at-arms, does not exclude from the platform the man whose ancestors have not held a generals offi ce, nor even the man who earns his daily bread by working at a trade; nay, these men he most heartily welcomes, and for this reason he repeats again and again the invitation, Who wishes to address the assembly? (Aeschin. .) Demosthenes can chide his fellow Athenians for failing to recollect certain events, because they were present at every assembly, as the state proposed a discussion of policy in which every one might join. (Dem. .) Everyone, in this context, refers to the body of citizens who were registered on the assembly list ( ) for their local district, or deme (Dem. .). Under the Democracy of Aristotles time (a er ), young men were enrolled on this list


when they were years old (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .), then spent two years as military cadets, or ephebes (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .), a er which they were members of the citi-zen body (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .).

Of course, some people might be better qualifi ed than others to speak on certain subjects, and the citizens of Athens could be very critical when anyone tried to speak outside of his expertise. e character Socrates in Platos Protagoras says that when the Athenian Assembly discuss-es construction, the citizens call for builders to speak, and when it discusses the construction of ships they call for shipwrights, but if anyone else, whom the people do not regard as a cra sman, attempts to advise them, no mat-ter how handsome and wealthy and well-born he may be, not one of these things induces them to accept him; they merely laugh him to scorn and shout him down, until ei-ther the speaker retires from his attempt, overborne by the clamor, or the archers () pull him from his place or turn him out altogether by order of the presiding of-fi cials ( ) (Plat. Prot. bc). But, Socrates continues, when the discussion is not about technical matters but about the governing of the city, the man who rises to advise them on this may equally well be a smith, a shoemaker, a merchant, a sea-captain, a rich man, a poor man, of good family or of none (Plat. Prot. d).

ere is the question of participation by Athenians liv-ing in the countryside of Attica, outside the city of Athens. While these people were certainly citizens of Athens, it may


o en have been diffi cult for them to attend a meeting of the Assembly. is would have been especially true when emergency meetings were called on short notice, such as the occasion that Demosthenes describes, when news of a military disaster came to the city in the evening, and a special Assembly convened the very next morning (Dem. .). is assembly, and any others like it, must have consisted mainly of citizens living close to the city. And even when there was more warning before a meeting, we have to wonder how many Athenians living in the coun-tryside of Attica would have made a or mile round trip to downtown Athens and back. In we can estimate that there were between , and , male citizens in Athens it is beyond the scope of this article to give evidence and justifi cation for this, but the argu-ments are presented in Victor Ehrenberg, e Greek State,nd English Edition (Methuen, ) , whose estimate is ,,, and in A.W. Gomme, e Population of Athens in the Fi h and Fourth Centuries B.C. (Blackwell, ) , whose estimate is , but the number of Athenians in attendance at a given meeting seems to have been considerably lower. ucydides makes the statement that during the Peloponnesian War ( ) there were usually only people at a meeting ( uc. .), although he may be exaggerating downwards; a better measure of regular attendance might be the fact that citizens were required for a valid vote conferring citizen-


ship on a non-Athenian (the earliest evidence for this rule dates from ) (IG ) (IG ) ( II ; Dem. .; Dem. .).

F S e Assembly met so that the male citizens could dis-cuss the aff airs of the city, and such discussion required that each citizen have freedom to speak his mind. is freedom was vital to the proper functioning of the As-sembly, whether the issue at stake was some important public policy (Dem. .), or the rights of a single citizen (Dem. .). In an anecdote from the distant past, Demos-thenes suggests that freedom of speech had a long history at Athens, and that it persisted despite periodic attempts to limit it. He recounts how in the th century the island of Salamis had revolted from Athenian control, and the Athenians had forbidden anyone to propose a war to recover the island; but Solon, a real person whose place in Athenian history became subject of legend, composed a poem on the subject (poetry on the subject was evidently not forbidden), and through this ruse got around the law and convinced Athens to fi ght for Salamis (Dem. .). By the th century BC, discussions of motions in the As-sembly were opened with a general invitation to all the male citizens, as the Herald () asked, Who wishes to speak? (Dem. .; Aeschin. .; Aristoph. Ach. ). We might note, here, that Demosthenes claims a certain freedom of speech to have extended even to resident for-eigners and slaves (Dem. .), although he is certainly not


talking about participation in the Assembly, and we should wonder how much freedom these people actually enjoyed.

is freedom to speak was not absolute or without regu-lation. Aeschines tells us, for example, that in the early democracy (before the th century) citizens over years of age could speak fi rst, and only a er those had their say could younger men speak (Aeschin. .; Aeschin. .). Other formal restrictions could apply, such as decrees limiting discussion of certain topics to certain meetings of the Assembly (Aeschin. .), or even laws forbidding discussion of issues already settled in a court (Dem. .). Other, less legitimate (but perhaps more eff ective) limits could be imposed: the crowd might raise a clamor and refuse to listen to a speaker advocate an unpopular pro-posal (Dem. .), and this seems to have happened o en enough that orators regularly asked, beforehand, not to be shouted down (Dem. .).

E AIndividual citizens could lose the right to participate in the Assembly by committing various off enses (Aeschin. .). Demosthenes mentions legal penalties for people who at-tend a meeting of the Assembly while owing a debt to the public treasury (Dem. .), or who have been stricken, for some reason or another, from their demes register of citizens (Dem. .). Also prohibited from participating were: anyone convicted of prostituting himself (Aeschin. .; Aeschin. .; and Aeschin. ., where the orator adds,


however well he speaks), anyone who beat his father or mother, or failed to support them, or who threw away his shield in battle, or who squandered his inheritance (Ae-schin. . Aeschin. .). Any citizen who suspected another of being unqualifi ed to participate in the As-sembly could challenge him to dokimasia, or scrutiny (), whereupon the issue would be decided by a jury in a law-court (Aeschin. .).

P PCitizens were paid for attending the Assembly, to ensure that even the poor could aff ord to take time from their work to participate in their own government. Aristotle recognized that inclusion of all citizens and freedom to speak are not the only hallmarks of a democratic constitu-tion, but that the most democratic states pay their citizens for attending the Assembly. He claims that in the absence of payment, the Council () is the most democratic of magistracies (Aristot. Pol. b), but in states that can aff ord to, and do, pay their citizens for attending meet-ings of the Assembly, all the citizens actually take part in it and exercise their citizenship, because even the poor are enabled to be at leisure by receiving pay (Aristot. Pol. a). A historical anecdote recorded in Aristotles Con-stitution of the Athenians further supports this assertion: In , when a group of Athenians temporarily overthrew the democracy and established an oligarchy, one of their fi rst acts was to pass a law that no one should receive pay


for political activity (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .; and Aristot. Ath. Pol. ., referring to the subsequent regime of and ). In the th century, when Timocrates had proposed that the Athenians loosen enforcement of penalties against those who owe debts to the state, Demosthenes claimed that there would be no money le in the treasury to pay for attendance at the Assembly, and he went on to equate that outcome with an end to Democracy (Dem. .).

Aristot. Ath. Pol. . says that under the Constitution of Draco, a mostly legendary period in the history of pre-democratic Athens, citizenship was limited to those who could aff ord to arm themselves. Under the laws instituted by Solon in the th century, the Athenians were divided into four property classes, and only those who possessed a certain amount of property could hold offi ce (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .; IG II ). is property qualifi cation survived into the th century, but came to be disregarded in the th century, candidates for offi ce were asked about their property class, but everyone simply claimed to belong to the higher classes (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .; Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). Demosthenes mentions eogenes of Cothoci-dae, who was appointed to the offi ce of Archon Basileus, although he was so poor that his friends had to help him meet the expenses that went along with taking offi ce (Dem. .).

But even under the old system, where only the wealthy could hold offi ce, we do not hear of any property qualifi -cation for participating in the Assembly; even the poorest


citizens were eligible to meet on the Pnyx and speak their minds. As Athens became increasingly democratic, the city began to pay its citizens to attend the Assembly, fi rst one obol per meeting, then two, then three (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). A character in one of Aristophanes comedies (produced in the early th century) complains that in the old days, when the pay was only one obol, all the citizens stayed at home, but now that the pay is three obols, meet-ings are too crowded (Aristoph. Eccl. ; see also the par-ody of the -obol payment at Aristoph. Eccl. ). In Aristo-phanes there are several jokes about people getting to the Assembly too late to receive their pay, which suggests that citizens had to be present at the beginning of the meeting in order to receive pay, or perhaps that only the fi rst citizens to arrive got paid (Aristoph. Eccl. ;Aristoph. Eccl. ; Aristoph. Eccl. ). e rate seems to have re-mained at obols until around , if we can trust a pass-ing reference in Aristophanes Wealth (Aristoph. Pl. ) (source for date: OCD OCD OCD ,s.v. Aristophanes). By the s and s, the payment had increased to one drachma (six obols) for an ordinary meeting, and a drachma and a half (nine obols) for a sovereign assembly ( , see below) (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). Demosthenes men-tions, in a rather vague passage, that taxation alone was not suffi cient to pay for the expense of holding meetings of the Assembly, and that various laws ensured supplemental income for that purpose (Dem. .).


M P e traditional meeting-place for the Assembly was the open space on top of the hill of the Pnyx, ( uc. .), and the Pnyx seems to have been considered the proper place for the business of the Assembly: Aeschines men-tions a law requiring that anyone awarded a crown by the Assembly be given the crown on the Pnyx and nowhere else (Aeschin. .). In fact, if we compare Aeschin. ., which specifi es that the crown be awarded on the Pnyx ( ), with Aeschin. ., which specifi es that it be awarded in the Assembly ( ), we might conclude that Assembly and Pnyx were used synony-mously. e Pnyx was open to the sky, and thus meetings of the Assembly must have been infl uenced by the weather; the laws that mandated good weather omens before the election of military offi cers (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .) might have been as interested in ensuring a comfortable day for discussion as in ascertaining divine favor.

When the Assembly was to meet on the Pnyx, hurdles ( ) were set up on the hill to separate the citizens, meeting in the Assembly, from non-citizens, who presum-ably would gather as spectators (Dem. .). Hurdles were also set up in the marketplace () before meetings of the Assembly, perhaps to channel citizens toward the Pnyx (Dem. .). In th century comedy we also fi nd jokes about people in the marketplace fl eeing a red rope ( ) (Aristoph. Ach. ),


a rope dipped in wet red paint, which seems to have been used to herd people out of the marketplace and to the As-sembly. In the th century, when payment for attendance was suffi cient motivation to ensure attendance, this red rope seems to have been used to keep people out of a meet-ing that was already full (Aristoph. Eccl. ).

But the Pnyx was clearly not the only place at which an Assembly could convene. Before a meeting of the Assem-bly, the Prytanies ( ) were supposed to post the upcoming meetings agenda and the location of the meeting ( ) (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). Dem-osthenes mentions a law () mandating a meeting of the Assembly in the eater of Dionysus on the day a er the Festival of All-Zeus, (the ); this assembly is to deal with, fi rst, any religious matters, and then hear any complaints that arise from the procession or contests at the festival (Dem. .). Aeschines mentions a session of the Assembly held in the eater of Dionysus a er the fes-tival of the City Dionysia (Aeschin. .). He also reports a vote of censure () being passed against a certain Meidias in the eater of Dionysus (Aeschin. .).

S MIn the th century, there were regularly scheduled meetings of the Assembly each year, four in each prytany (each prytany was one tenth of the year) (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .; IG II a).


One of the four meetings in each prytany was the Sov-ereign Assembly ( ), the agenda for which included the confi rmation of magistrates currently serv-ing, issues of the food supply and defense, announcements of private property to be confi scated, and announcements of lawsuits regarding inheritance (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .).

In each prytany, there were three regular assemblies in addition to the Sovereign Assembly ( ); these were simply called Assemblies () (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .; IG II ). It seems likely that in the th cen-tury only the Sovereign Assemblies were regularly sched-uled, because ucydides mentions a period of days in the year in which there was no Assembly ( uc. ..); if there were four scheduled assemblies in each prytany at that time, days could not have passed without a meet-ing.

Apart from the Sovereign Assembly, one of the remain-ing three was an occasion for any citizen who wished to present a suppliant-branch () and address his fel-low citizens about any public or private matter that con-cerned him (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). e ability of citizens to voice complaints in this public forum may have deterred certain bad behavior, or at least made the perpetrators think twice. Aeschines recounts how some men assaulted a man named Pittalacus; on the next day Pittalacus went to the marketplace, and his attackers came up to him and tried to placate him, because there was to be an Assembly that day, and they were afraid that the whole city would


learn of their crime ( , ) (Aeschin. .).

e other two regularly scheduled meetings in each prytany were concerned, according to Aristotle, with other things ( ) (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). Some of this other business was scheduled to happen at particular assemblies during the year. At an assembly held on the th day of the fi rst prytany, the people voted on whether or not to hold a review of all the laws () (Dem. .). In the th prytany, there was discussion of whether or not to hold an ostracism, discussion of any information against people charged with being informers ( ) in this category, no more than three citizens and three metics and discussion of people accused of failing to perform some assigned public service ( ) (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). A meeting during the th prytany was also the occasion for election of military offi cers (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .).

At least until the middle of the th century the Assem-bly occasionally met to conduct a trial, most o en an im-peachment (Dem. .). is is a complex matter, since the laws regarding impeachment were revised during the th century. For a full discussion, see the article on Im-peachment.

Assemblies do not seem to have taken place on fi xed days during each prytany, but they did not happen on days


when the law-courts were in session (Dem. .). ey seem also to have been scheduled around other important events, such as religious festivals. Aeschines is highly criti-cal of an Assembly that was called on the th day of the month Elaphobolion, a day of sacrifi ces to Asclepius (the orator says that this was unprecedented in memory) (Ae-schin. .), and Demosthenes criticizes a motion to have the Assembly meet on the th of the month Hecatom-baion, a festival day for Cronus (Dem. .).

In addition to Sovereign Assemblies ( ) and Assemblies (), there were Called-together Assemblies ( ); the term appears only in literary evidence (not in inscriptions) during the th century, and its meaning is not entirely clear. Some-times our sources seem to use it to refer to extra meet-ings, in addition to the normal four that happened in each prytany. Aeschines mentions a time when Athens was in such a panic over Philip of Macedons war against Amphi-polis, that there were more Called-together Assemblies ( ) than scheduled Assemblies ( ) (Aeschin. .). But at other times the term seems to indicate an Assembly called at short notice, but not necessarily an extra Assembly. During a military crisis involving Philip, Demosthenes says that a regular Assem-bly met and disbanded, but that people continued to dis-cuss matters in the Agora, thinking that another Assem-bly, a called-together Assembly ( ), might be called at any time (Dem. .). One such As-


sembly was called on short notice when news came that a fl eet under the command of Leodamas had been captured by Philip of Macedon (Dem. .); another was called, with the hurdles set out and the trumpeter summoned, upon news that Elatea was captured (Dem. .). Other examples of Called-together Assemblies are at Aeschin. ., where we fi nd that the Assembly met on two subse-quent days to discuss foreign policy issues (in this case, the fi rst Assembly was devoted to discussion of the issues, and at the second there was only voting, without discussion [Aeschin. .]), and at Aeschin. ., where Demosthenes calls for an Assembly to meet immediately and discuss a treaty with Philip. is last provides good evidence that the term referred mainly to an As-sembly called on short notice, because an inscription shows us that at this very Assembly a certain amount of normal business was discussed before the pressing issues regarding Philip came up for a vote (IG regarding Philip came up for a vote (IG regarding Philip came up for a vote ( II .). Fur-thermore, another inscription mentions a Called-together Sovereign Assembly ( ) (IG Sovereign Assembly ( ) (IG Sovereign Assembly ( ) ( II), which must refer to a Sovereign Assembly called on short notice.

It seems, too, that extra Assemblies were not called lightly. Demosthenes mentions an occasion on which the Council chose to act on its own, because there was no re-maining Assembly ( ) in that prytany (Dem. .).


T C MOffi cials of the Council called together a meeting of the Assembly, which opened with various religious rituals be-fore the citizens were invited to speak and vote on matters of public business.

ose serving as Prytaneis ( ) (the same word, prytaneis refers to the governmental

months, ten each year, and to the members of the Council who were presiding during a given prytany), normally called meetings of the Assembly (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .), and posted the agenda beforehand (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). In the case of the special Assembly for the ratifi cation of laws, if the Prytaneis failed to call for an Assembly on the assigned date, they were each to be fi ned drachmas (Dem. .). If the Assembly was to vote on some matter by ballot, the Prytaneis distribute the ballots (Dem. .).

In the th century, the Prytaneis actually managed the conduct of a meeting of the Assembly (Xen. Hell. ..), but in Aristotles time (a er the middle of the th century), the President of the Council () appointed nine Proedroi () for each Assembly; these were cho-sen from members of the Council who were not currently serving as Prytaneis ( ) (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). ese Proedroi managed the conduct of the Assem-bly; deciding when to put a question to the vote (Aeschin. .; Aeschin. .), and deciding when to cut off discus-sion of a matter (Aeschin. .).


e People did, on occasion, override the will of the of-fi cials conducting the meetings, as when, in the late th century, the Prytaneis were unwilling to allow a vote, the People overrode them with menacing shouts (Xen. Hell. ..).

e selection or appointment of Proedroi was potentially subject to corruption, which Aeschines hints at on two oc-casions (Aeschin. .; Aeschin. .). In addition to these Proedroi, the Assembly elected a clerk () to read documents aloud (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .); the orator Aeschines served as a clerk early in his career, although we do not know whether he was the clerk appointed to read in the Assembly (Dem. .).

e opening of a meeting of the Assembly was marked by rituals. A sacrifi ce was made and carried around the area, and there was a prayer, both of these intended to purify the proceedings (Aeschin. .; Aeschin. .; a parody of this prayer is found at Aristoph. es. ). e heralds () off ered the prayer (Aeschin. .; Dem. .). If a joke in Aristophanes is to be trusted, libations played some part in these rituals as well (Aristoph. Eccl. ). e herald also called down curses () on anyone who would mislead the Assembly (Dem. .; Dem. .; there is a parody of this at Aristoph. es. ). A er these rituals, the Herald asked Who wishes to speak ( ), and the assembly was opened (Dem. .; Ae-schin. .; Aristoph. Ach. ; cf. a possible parody of this at Aristoph. Eccl. ).


C BWhile any male citizen was invited to speak in an Assem-bly and all male citizens could vote, the topics for discus-sion and vote were limited by what amounted to a system of checks and balances between the Assembly and the Council.

e Council could pass Decrees of the Council ( ) as opposed to Decrees of the Assembly ( ), which the Assembly passed but only regarding minor matters (for the terms for the two kinds of decrees, see Dem. .; Dem. .; for examples of Decrees of the Council, see the article on Council). Im-portant decrees were passed by the Assembly. e Assem-bly, too, could act on certain things without any interven-tion from the Council, such as the business that regularly appeared on the agenda for the Sovereign Assembly in each prytany (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .), or the annual vote on the laws that took place in the fi rst Assembly of the year (Dem. .).

But in important matters, the Council and the Assembly had to work together. e Assembly could not discuss or vote on a matter that the presiding offi cials, the Prytaneis, did not put on the agenda, and the Prytaneis could not put anything on the agenda unless the Council had considered it fi rst (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). e Council had to approve a probouleuma, or resolution (), which was


read at the Assembly, whereupon the citizens could discuss it and vote on it (Dem. .; Dem. .).

Once the resolution came to the Assembly, it ceased to be a probouleuma and became a psephisma (), a

thing to be voted on (Dem. .). A very clear example of this process in action is Dem. ., where the orator mentions a probouleuma passed by the Council asking the Assembly to discuss and vote on how to spend a budget surplus: should it go to military preparations or to public festivals?

It seems that the Council could send two diff erent kinds of probouleumata (the plural of probouleuma) to the As-sembly. Sometimes the Council would pass an open-ended probouleuma to the Assembly, which would debate it and vote on it; the ensuing decree, when it was inscribed on stone, would then begin with the words It was decided by the People that... ( ) (IG the People that... ( ) (IG the People that... ( ) ( II ; IG II ). Because the Council had not made a specifi c recommen-dation, the decree was credited to the will of the Athenian people. At other times, the Council might send a decree with a specifi c recommendation, which the Assembly would simply vote on; in these cases, the ensuing decree would begin with the words It was decided by the Council and the People that... ( ) (IG and the People that... ( ) (IG and the People that... ( ) (II ). In this case, because the Assembly merely ratifi ed the Councils decision, the decree was credit to the will of both.


Anyone who introduced a measure in the Assembly that had not been approved by the Council was subject to prosecution for illegal procedure (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .); the Council would try his case, but if he were found guilty before the Council, he could appeal his case back to the Assembly (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .).

e relationship between the Council and the Assembly seems to have been a complicated one. Demosthenes, for example, mentions a probouleuma being passed by the Council in the hopes that it might be ratifi ed by a deluded Assembly ( ), which suggests that some Athenians, at least, thought the Assem-bly to be more easily fooled than the Council, although both were composed of a cross-section of citizens (Dem. .). e rules governing probouleumata and psephis-mata also seem to have been somewhat ambiguous. One dispute over the interpretation of those rules focused on a law () that allowed the Assembly to give an award to the Council, if the citizens thought that the Council had done a particularly good job; on this occasion, the Presid-ing Offi cial () put a motion to the vote, and the Assembly approved it by a show of hands (). e dispute, between Demosthenes and Androtion, was over the legality of this vote. Androtion claimed that because there was already a law allowing the Assembly to make such a vote, no probouleuma was necessary; but Demos-thenes argued that the existence of the law merely allowed a probouleuma to be passed, and any vote by the Assem-


bly without a probouleuma was illegal (Dem. .). We do not know, unfortunately, how this particular dispute was resolved.

VMost voting in the Assembly was by a show of hands (), although some votes were conducted by se-cret ballot ().

Aristotle says that payment for attendance was insti-tuted specifi cally to get people to come to vote by show of hands (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). Even the most serious of matters were o en decided by show of hands, such as the impeachment and condemnation of generals (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .) and the approval of formal laws () (Dem. .) (laws were more signifi cant than decrees; see below and on Legislation). is method of voting limited the business of the Assembly to daylight hours, as this anec-dote from Xenophon shows: it was decided, however, that the matter should be postponed to another meeting of the Assembly (for by that time it was late in the day and they could not have distinguished the hands in the voting). ( , ) (Xen. Hell. ..). Under certain circumstances, the Assembly would vote by ballot, literally pebble (); this was organized by Tribes (), with two urns, serving as ballot-boxes, for each Tribe (Xen. Hell. ..). Voting by ballot was limited


to issues which had to be decided by a quorum of citizens (Dem. . Dem. .).

Once the Assembly had approved something, the decree, its date, and the names of the offi cials who put the matter to the vote, were recorded and preserved as a public record of the proceedings of government (Aeschin. .; Aeschin. .; Aeschin. .). us Aeschines could refer to a decree () as originally written ( ) (Aeschin. .). When Aeschines offi cially declined to serve as an ambassador when selected by the Assembly, his affi davit refusing that offi ce was preserved with the original decree in the Metroon, the Temple of Demeter (Dem. .).

D L e assembly passed decrees () by show of hands (), but, in the th century at least, these decrees were not the same as laws (). Laws were more permanent, more universal, and therefore harder to pass; for example, a quorum of citizens was needed to vote on a law that named an individual (a ) such a law revoking someones citizenship but decrees naming individuals required no special quorum (Andoc. .; Dem. .).

Aeschines distinguishes between the two, once asking rhetorically why the laws are good, but the decrees of the Assembly are bad (Aeschin. .). Aristotle makes a theo-retical distinction between laws and decrees, noting that in


some kinds of democracy the laws rule, but in other kinds decrees of an assembly can override laws (Aristot. Pol. a). Athens was the former kind of democracy, accord-ing to Demosthenes, who quotes a principle of Athenian governance, that No decree, either of the Council or the Assembly shall have more authority than a law ( ) (Dem. .). On the other hand, the laws could determine what sorts of decrees the Assembly could pass, such as a law that allows the Assembly to pass a decree honoring a citizen, but that limits the circumstances of such an honor (Aeschin. .). Based on the laws, the courts could disal-low a decree (Dem. .).

e Assembly was responsible for creating laws, but did not pass them or repeal them directly, as it did decrees. On the th day of the fi rst prytany, the Assembly met for rati-fying the laws ( ); the Assembly voted approval or disapproval, fi rst, the laws having to do with the Council, then laws having to do with the nine Archons, and the laws having to do with other offi cials. If the votes expressed disapproval of any category of laws, then the last meeting of the prytany was set aside for discussion of those laws (Demosthenes adds that there were severe pen-alties for any offi cials, prytaneis or proedroi, who failed to follow this procedure) (Dem. . Dem. .). If, dur-ing those discussions, the Assembly decided that the laws needed to be changed, it could vote, on the third meeting a er that decision, to appoint of Board of Legislators, a


small committee of citizens who would make the fi nal decision regarding the laws; these were called Nomothetae () (Dem. .).

Only these Nomothetae could repeal a law (), but any Athenian citizen could propose the repeal, as long as he suggested a law to replace the one being repealed (Dem. .). Demosthenes himself was once charged with im-properly suggested the emendation of a law governing the maintenance of warships (Dem. .). Whoever wanted the Nomothetae to repeal a law, or wanted them to enact a new law, had to write down his proposal and post it publicly near the statues of the Eponymous Heroes; the Assembly could then see the number of proposed changes and allot the Nomothetae an appropriate amount of time for their work (Dem. .). Whenever someone proposed that a law should be repealed, the Assembly appointed fi ve citizens to argue, before the Nomothetae, in favor of keep-ing the existing law (Dem. .).

In addition to considering and acting upon proposals for new laws and proposals that existing laws be changed, the Nomothetae also undertook an annual review of all exist-ing laws, looking for any contradictions (Aeschin. .). If they found any contradictory laws, the Prytaneis were to call an Assembly, which would vote on how to resolve the contradiction (Aeschin. .). Demosthenes praises this practice of legislating ( ) as being open and democratic ( , , ), and in helping the average


citizen keep track of the laws of the city: [ e Nomothe-tae undertake their annual review ] so that there may be only one law dealing with each subject, and that the plain citizen may not be puzzled by such contradic-tions and be at a disadvantage compared with those who are acquainted with the whole body of law, but that all may have the same ordinances before them, simple and clear to read and understand. (Dem. .).

Any new laws proposed by the Nomothetae were to be published near the statues of the Eponymous Heroes and read aloud to the next meeting of the Assembly (Dem. .).

E OA large responsibility of the Assembly was the election of public offi cials, both civil servants and military offi cers.

Aristotle says that the Assembly elected generals ( ), offi cials with civic and military responsibilities, cavalry commanders (), and other War Leaders ( ), in whatever manner seemed good to the people ( ); these elections happened at a meeting of the Assembly held as soon as possible, weather permitting, a er the th prytany (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .; also Dem. .). e Assembly elected ten generals (), and voted on which general would assume which specifi c duty: one commanded heavy infantry on foreign expeditions; one took charge of the defense of Attica; one managed


the military harbor at Munychia and one the harbor at the Point ( ); one managed the Symmories (), which were the groups of citizens, called trierarchs () responsible for maintaining war-ships; and others were dispatched wherever they were needed (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). e Assembly also elected ten infantry commanders or taxiarchs () (Aris-tot. Ath. Pol. .). Demosthenes mentions being, himself, elected taxiarch (Dem. .). ey elected two cavalry commanders, or hipparchs () (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .), and a special hipparch for the island of Lemnos (Ar-istot. Ath. Pol. .). e Assembly elected ten phylarchs (), who each commanded the cavalry units con-tributed by one of Athens Tribes (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .).

In addition to these offi cials, the Assembly elected stew-ards () who were responsible for the ships Paralus and Ammon, which were used for special offi cial func-tions (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). e Assembly could dispatch these ships on missions and establish their budgets (Dem. .). Naval architects ( ) were also elected by the Assembly (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). On at least one occasion, Demosthenes proposed that the As-sembly meet on a certain date to elect offi cials to oversee the maintenance of the city walls (Aeschin. .). At one time, according to Aristotle, the Assembly also elected an offi cial to manage the parade featuring a -oared ship that carried young people through the streets of the city during


the Festival of the Dionysia ( ) (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .).

e Assembly chose a Treasurer of Military Funds, the Controllers of the eoric Fund, and the Superintendent of Wells; all of these offi cials held offi ce from one Panathaea (the All Athens Festival) to the next, four years (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). e Assembly elected by show of hands ten sacrifi cial offi cers called Superintendents of Expiations ( ), responsible for making sacrifi ces to appease the gods (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .), and ten yearly Sacrifi cial Offi cers ( ), who performed sacrifi ces and administered all the four-yearly festivals, except the Panathenaea (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). Demos-thenes accuses a man named Meidias of demanding to be elected overseer of the festival of the Dionysia, which might suggest that a certain amount of campaigning went on for these offi ces (Dem. .).

Aristotle says that the Assembly elected, by show of hands, a clerk to read document at meetings of the Assem-bly and of the Council (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .); at one time a special Clerk of the Presidency ( ) was also elected, but later came to be chosen by lot (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). ese clerks enjoyed free meals in the olos (Dem. .).

Demosthenes mentions a law that no commissioner () elected by the people is permitted to serve more than once ( ) (Dem. .). But he also claims


that the Assembly elected Meidias to the offi ces of steward () of the Paralus, hipparch, and superintendent of the Mysteries, sacrifi cer, and buyer of victims ( ), which cer-tainly suggests that there was no limit to the number of diff erent offi ces a man could hold (Dem. .).

Just as the Assembly could elect offi cials, it could also impeach them. See Impeachment.

F P: S E e Assembly was responsible for the general conduct of Athens public business, which included sending embas-sies to conduct business with other states.

Aristotle, a er listing the two special meetings of the Assembly in each prytany, says that the remaining two meetings were reserved for all other business ( ...) (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). Included in that general category were matters of foreign policy, and especially the appointment and dispatch of em-bassies (,) to other states. e sources contain many specifi c references to embassies sent out by the vote of the Assembly. Demosthenes mentions embas-sies sent by the Assembly to discuss peace with Philip of Macedon (Dem. .; Dem. .), one of three citizens to Philip to discuss his capture of some Athenian grain ships (Dem. .), an embassy to Philip asking him to make war on Persia, and a later embassy to the Persian King asking him to make war on Philip (Dem. .). On one occasion


we hear of a private individual, and not even an Athenian citizen, asking the Athenian Assembly to dispatch an em-bassy: Phrynon of Rhamnus had been captured by pirates and subsequently ransomed, whereupon he asked the Athenian Assembly to appoint an embassy to go to Philip and get Philip to help get his ransom back (Aeschin. .).

Certain embassies were recurring, such as the Hierono-mon () and the Pylagoras (), who were ambassadors with specifi c religious duties; Aeschines mentions a decree that orders them to travel to emopy-lae and Delphi at the times appointed by our fathers ( ) (Aeschin. .).

e Assembly could appoint citizens to serve on em-bassies, but a citizen could excuse himself by swearing an oath (), as Demosthenes claims to have done once (Dem. .). Aeschines cites a law that says that an ambassador chosen by the Assembly can excuse himself only by swearing before the Assembly, not before the Council (Aeschin. .). Once an embassy was approved, the Assembly could also dispatch an Athenian warship to convey the ambassadors to their destination (Dem. .). e Assembly would also give the ambassadors instruc-tions as to how to conduct their business (Dem. .). As evidence that the Athenians regarded their ambassadors as sacred and immune from interference, we have mention of an incident in which Megara arrested some Athenian ambassadors, whereupon the Assembly voted to exclude


all Megarians from participation in the Mysteries at Eleu-sis (Dem. .).

Once an embassy, dispatched by the Assembly, completed its mission, it was to report to the Assembly (Aeschin. ., Aeschin. .). ese reports were important: Aeschines mentions a motion to hold a meeting of the Assembly on a sacred day, so that the Assembly could hear an embassys report as quickly as possible (Aeschin. .). e Assembly could not make foreign policy decisions until they had heard from their returning ambassadors, and we hear of at least one occasion when the business of several cities, which were engaged in multi-lateral negotiations, came to a standstill until an Athenian embassy reported to the Athenian assembly (Aeschin. .). Demosthenes accuses an embassy, which he claims reported only to the Council, of failing in its duty by not reporting immediately to the Assembly (Dem. .); and the responsibility went in both directions, since Aeschines suggests that a returning had a right to the opportunity to report to the Assembly (Ae-schin. .). If the Assembly reacted favorably to the re-port, it could pass a vote of thanks to the ambassadors and treat them to a meal at public expense (Aeschin. .). But not all reports were so well received, such as that of Epi-crates, who was subject to impeachment and condemned to death for mishandling an embassy (Dem. .). ere is also a parody of an embassys report in Aristophanes Acharnians, during which a character complains that an embassy to Persia wasted the citys money (Aristoph. Ach.


); the jokes here may refl ect a common topic of discus-sion in the Assembly when embassies reported their activi-ties.

F P: R AWhen ambassadors from other states came to do business with Athens, they appeared before the Assembly.

Aeschines mentions an occasion on which Philocrates moved, in the Assembly, that Athens send out ten ambas-sadors to Philip for the purpose of inviting Philip to send his own ambassadors to Athens (Aeschin. .). Just as the Assembly could send out embassies and hear their reports when they returned, it could also receive embassies from foreign powers. Aeschines mentions a motion before the Assembly to receive ambassadors from Cersobleptes (Ae-schin. .), and a decree granting safe passage to ambas-sadors from Philip (Aeschin. .). Ambassadors from Philip and other states came before the Assembly to make their case (Dem. ., Dem. .). Foreign ambassadors might mount the platform to be questioned before the As-sembly (Aeschin. .). e Assembly might vote special honors for foreign ambassadors, such as a free dinner in the Prytaneum (Dem. .) or choice seats for a play in the eater of Dionysus (Dem. .).


F P: G I e Assembly directed most of Athens foreign policy, in-cluding making specifi c decisions regarding alliances and military strategy.

When the Assembly sent out ambassadors or received ambassadors from elsewhere, it was conducting foreign policy. So, on the motion of Demosthenes, the Assembly dispatched fi ve citizens as ambassadors to negotiate a treaty of peace between Athens and Philip of Macedon (Dem. .). But the Assemblys powers over foreign policy extended far beyond the dispatch of embassies. When the embassy just mentioned returned to Athens, the Assembly had to decide how to respond to the diplomatic developments. We hear of two subsequent meetings. At one, the Assembly discussed formalizing a treaty of peace with Philip, and at the other, it discussed making an alli-ance with Philip (Aeschin. .). When these diplomatic eff orts resulted in a specifi c proposal, the Assembly voted to make the treaty offi cial (Aeschin. .; Aeschin. .; Dem. .).

ere are other examples of the Assembly managing for-eign policy. e Assembly voted to send Timotheus to help the Persian Ariobarzanes, who was leading a revolt against the Persian king (Dem. .). e Assembly voted to ex-clude all Megarians from the celebration of the Mysteries at Eleusis, a er Megara had arrested some Athenian am-bassadors (Dem. .). e Assembly received a petition


from essaly, which was asking that Philip of Macedon be admitted into the Amphictyonic Council, which was a body, consisting of representatives from several cities, that governed the shrines of Apollo at Delphi (Dem. .).

One signifi cant disadvantage of conducting foreign policy in the Assembly, on the Pnyx, out in the open, was a complete lack of secrecy. When Athens voted to make peace with Philip of Macedon (Aeschin. .; Aeschin. .; Dem. .), the people of Phocis, who were at war with Philip, learned of this within four days, according to Demosthenes, because some Phocians were in Athens and overheard the proceedings on the Pnyx (Dem. .; Dem. .).

C R e Assembly could confer honorary Athenian citizenship on non-Athenians, or could award someone with immu-nity from taxes (), and could honor citizens with gold crowns ().

To confer citizenship, six thousand Athenians had to vote, by secret ballot (Dem. .); once citizenship had thus been voted on someone, only a court could withdraw it (Dem. .). Among the people on whom the Assembly granted honorary citizenship were Teres and Cersobleptes, rulers of race (Dem. .), Ariobarzanes (a Persian), Phi-liscus, and Charidemus (Dem. .), Timotheus (Dem. .), and once, a er the Battle of Marathon, all male cit-izens of Plataea (Dem. .). Demosthenes says, in one


speech, that Meno of Pharsalus and Perdiccas of Macedo-nia were granted citizenship by the Assembly (Dem. .

Dem. .), but at another place he says, quite explicitly, that these two were not granted citizenship but merely im-munity from taxes (Dem. . Dem. .).

It is important to note a passage in Demosthenes where he says that the Athenians considered honorary citizens to be real Athenians only when it was convenient. ( , , , , ) (Dem. .), and that the honorary citizenship that the As-sembly granted to Teres and Cersobleptes of race was not real ( ) (Dem. .).

e Assembly could also confer lesser honors by passing a decree that named the honored parties friends of the state, benefactors, and immune from all taxes (, , ) (Dem. .). Epicerdes, who saved the Athenians captured in Sicily, was granted such immunity (Dem. .), as was the general Conon (Dem. .). e Assembly could also pass a more simple vote of thanks, as it did for Callias (Dem. .).

One honor that the Assembly could bestow was a crown. e Assembly awarded crowns, by decree, as rewards for some service to Athens. So, Nausicles was crowned several times for spending his own money on a military expedi-tion while he held the offi ce of General () (Dem. .). Diotimus and Charidemus were crowned for do-


nating shields to Athens (Dem. .). Neoptolemus was crowned for raising money toward certain public works (Dem. .). Demosthenes himself claims to have been awarded a crown for overseeing the repair of some fortifi -cations and for having been a good manager of the eoric Fund (Dem. .). A crown could be held out as an in-centive, as on one occasion when we hear of the Assembly off ering a crown to the fi rst trierarch to get his ship ready for sea (Dem. .). e crowns awarded by the assembly became the property of the recipient and his family, as opposed to being hung in a temple and thus dedicated to the gods in the recipients name (Aeschin. .). ere is a great deal of evidence regarding this procedure because Aeschines prosecuted Ctesiphon for illegally moving that the Assembly bestow a crown on Demosthenes; both Aeschines speech for the prosecution and Demosthenes speech in defense of Ctesiphon survive (Aeschin. .; Dem. .).

e details of crowning are not particularly clear, be-cause Aeschines and Demosthenes, naturally, present two diff erent versions. Aeschines quotes a law mandating that anyone crowned by the Assembly must receive the crown on the Pnyx (Aeschin. .; compare Aeschin. . and Aeschin. ., where he seems to use the word Assembly [ ] as a synonym for the Pnyx). Elsewhere he mentions this law from another direction, saying that any crowns awarded during a meeting of the Assembly must be awarded by the People () (Aeschin. .). Dem-


osthenes interprets the law diff erently, saying that when the Assembly bestows a crown, it may be conferred on the Pnyx, but may also be conferred somewhere else (Dem. .). Demosthenes evidently had cited a law saying that the People () could vote to crown someone in the eater of Dionysus (Aeschin. .). According to Ae-schines, the problem with awarding crowns in the eater of Dionysus was this: since non-Athenians might be pres-ent in the eater, such an award conferred more wide-spread glory on the recipient than if the crown were given on the Pnyx, and this was not fair to those who received their crowns on the Pnyx (Aeschin. .).

C R M e Assembly also dealt with questions of religious ritual and accusations of impious behavior, particularly because the democracy sponsored public festivals, which were both civic events, to celebrate the glory of Athens, and religious events, to honor the gods.

ere was a special meeting of the Assembly regularly held in the eater of Dionysus a er the festival of the City Dionysia (Aeschin. .; Dem. ., which says that this was mandated by a law [ ] and was to be held on the day a er the Pandia, the Festival of All-Zeus). e purpose of this meeting was, at least in part, to deal publicly with any issues that arose during the Festival. Demosthenes claims to have lodged complaints against Meidias for crimes he committed during the City Dionysia (Dem. .), and Ae-


schines mentions that a vote of censure () was passed against Meidias in the eater of Dionysus (Aeschin. .). Demosthenes mentions the Assembly con-demning a man, the father of Chariclides. e son was an Archon, and the father was serving as his Presiding Offi cial (); the father expelled a man from the eater of Dionysus, which was proper, since the man was in the wrong seat, but in doing so the father laid a hand on him. us he was deemed, by the Assembly, to have profaned the Festival and was condemned (Dem. .). Another man condemned for profaning the Festival was Ctesicles, who was drunk during the procession and struck a man with a lash (Dem. .). Demosthenes mentions a decree, moved by Evegorus, that no one creditor may seize any property from his debtors during the Festival, and that if he does, a complaint may be lodged at the meeting of the Assembly immediately following the Festival (Dem. .).

Other cases of religious profanation came before the As-sembly. e Assembly convicted Euandrus of profaning the Eleusinian Mysteries because he had won a suit against Menippus and arrested him during the Mysteries (Dem. .). And Aeschines claims to have prosecuted Demos-thenes for guest-murder (), an off ense against the gods, and to have convicted him in the presence of all Athenians ( ), which strongly suggests that this took place at a meeting of the Assembly (Aeschin. .).


F M e Assembly made decisions in fi nancial matters as well.

A topic of discussion for at least some meetings of the Assembly was the dole ( ), and whether mon-ies should be distributed generally to all citizens, or only to those who provided some service (Dem. .). Demosthen-es complains, on one occasion that we have surrendered the Assembly to discussion of doles ( ), and we might suspect that this was a popular and controversial topic (Dem. .). e As-sembly voted on how to spend any surplus funds; on one occasion, a er the Council had passed a probouleuma (the preliminary measure that put a piece of business on the Assemblys agenda), the Assembly had to decide whether to spend surplus funds on military things or on funding public festivals (Dem. .). is particular choice, de-fense or festivals, appears elsewhere, where the question is whether the Legislators () should repeal a law and allow the eoric Fund to be spent for military pur-poses (Dem. .). We know that the Assembly determined military budgets, as when Meidias was dispatched in a ship on a military mission and the Assembly set his budget at talents (see Money) (Dem. .).

e Assembly was the forum for accusations of fi nancial misdeeds and the body responsible for investigating them. Dem. . mentions a decree that established a special investigation into any public money that might be in the


hands of private citizens; this investigation brought its results to the Council, which then asked the Assembly to vote for further investigations (Dem. .). A man named Pamphilus, from the deme Acherdous denounced Hege-sandrus and Timarchus before the Assembly, accusing them of having stolen drachmas from the Parthenon (Aeschin. .). Demosthenes reports a case in which someone was charged with defrauding the treasury, and the matter went before the Council, the Assembly (which spent a whole day on the matter), and two diff erent ju-ries (Dem. .). If someone were imprisoned because he owed money to the treasury, the Assembly could agree to let him remain free as long as someone else posted bond (Dem. .). However, if someone lost his citizenship be-cause of an unpaid debt to a temple, the Assembly could not restore his citizenship without votes in his favor (Dem. .).

M M e Assembly passed decrees on military matters, begin-ning with votes to make preparations for war (Dem. .). Since Athens relied on a citizen militia to fi ght its wars (see, for example, Dem. .), military decisions were of immedi-ate and vital relevance to those citizens as they gathered in the Assembly.

Military questions and fi nancial questions were o en inseparable, as when Philip was besieging Heraeum and the Assembly voted to launch a fl eet of forty ships and levy


a special tax to pay for the expedition (Dem. .). It was not unknown for a private citizen to off er, during a meet-ing of the Assembly, a voluntary donation () for a military expedition (Dem. .). e military decisions in the hands of the Assembly were not limited to broad political matters; while the Council decided, each year, whether to spend money on the construction of warships, it was the Assembly that decided what types of warships to build that year (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). Demosthenes, in one speech, asks the Assembly to vote to raise an army (to fi ght Philip) consisting of men, of whom were to be Athenians, of any suitable age, serving for a specifi ed period, and other specifi c details (Dem. .); this request shows the level of detail with which the Assembly involved itself in planning. Demosthenes goes beyond appropria-tions to strategy when he asks that the Assembly vote that this army should wage a war of continuous annoyance against Philip ( ) (Dem. .).

In times of crisis, the Assembly was responsible for vot-ing to mobilize, and the fi rst step seems to have been a vote that the trierarchs () get their ships ready for sea (Dem. .; Dem. .). e Assembly could set incentives for speed in this matter, and hand down punishment for ineffi ciency; we hear of the Assembly awarding a crown for the fi rst to get his ship ready, and at the same time decree-ing that those who did not launch on time were subject to imprisonment (


, ) (Dem. .). Likewise, the Assembly could, at any time, replace one military commander with another, as when Autocles was relieved of command, and the Assembly dispatched Menon to replace him (Dem. .; see also Impeachment).

O MIt is important to remember, in the face of all of these spe-cifi c actions by the Assembly, that this body could pass a decree on almost anything, as long as the Council pre-sented a probouleuma (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). In certain matters the Legislators () could bring special matters before the Assembly, such as impeachments, au-dits of generals, or prosecutions for improper legislation (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). e Areopagus, too, could bring matters before the Assembly, such as a report on the sub-ject of private residences being built on the Pnyx (Aeschin. .). And certain business seems to have happened in the presence of the Assembly, but without necessitating a vote or a decree, such as the Archons assigning fl ute players to tragic choruses (Dem. .). So when we hear of the As-sembly approving a law () stating that if any one of the captains of the ferry-boats, which traveled between the mainland and the island of Salamis, should capsize his boat, he is to lose his job (Aeschin. .), we should not necessarily assume that governance of the ferry-boats was an ongoing part of the Assemblys agenda, only that this


was an issue that seemed suffi ciently important for the As-sembly and the Legislators () to take it up on one occasion.

D C, C, MMeetings of the Assembly were not always orderly aff airs. Orators seem to have resorted to theatrics from time to time, such as in the th century when Cleophon came forward, drunk, wearing armor, and threatening anyone who wished to make an arrangement with Sparta (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). According to Aeschines, Demosthenes once threatened to drag away, by the hair, anyone who advo-cated peace with Philip (Aeschines explicitly compares this incident to Cleophons antics many years before) (Ae-schin. .). Aeschines also mentions Timarchus throw-ing off his clothes and leaping around like a gymnast to punctuate some point (Aeschin. .). Aristotle blames the late th century politician Cleon for this sort of behavior, saying that he was the fi rst to use unseemly shouting and coarse abuse on the platform ( , ), and to hitch up his cloak (Aristot. Ath. Pol. .). In addition to the antics of speakers, the assembled crowd could get row-dy. Demosthenes laments that many citizens would come to the Assembly for diversion () rather than for serious deliberation (Dem. .). When Philocrates tried to speak in favor of an unpopular motion, according to


Demosthenes, the assembly raised a clamor and refused to listen to him, forcing him to step down ( , ) (Dem. .).

ere were laws against such behavior. Aeschines quotes a law that if anyone who spoke off subject, failed to speak on each proposition separately, spoke twice on the same subject on the same day, spoke abusively, interrupted, shouted disapproval, or laid hands on the Presiding Of-fi cials (), then that person could be fi ned up to drachmas for each off ence, and under certain circum-stances, the Council could vote to fi ne him even more (Ae-schin. .). But, as the evidence suggests, this law was not uniformly or consistently enforced, a fact that Aeschines laments (Aeschin. .).

Misbehavior of a more serious kind was possible, as well, and was the subject of debate in the Assembly. Aeschines mentioned a decree, proposed by one Demophilus, that was to set certain punishments for attempts to bribe mem-ber of the Assembly (Aeschin. .). Aeschines accuses De-mosthenes of bribing hirelings () to attend meetings of the Assembly and vote a certain way (Aeschin. .). And Aeschines elsewhere complains of corruption deeper than specifi c instances of bribery, claiming that the Presiding Offi cials () are not chosen fairly, but by a corrupt process (Aeschin. .).

Short of bribery, but equally subject to accusations, com-plaints and condemnations by the orators, were eff orts to


manipulate the normal workings of the Assembly and the government generally. For example, Aeschines argues that Demosthenes proposed a decree sending ambassadors to ermopylae and Delphi the times appointed by our fa-thers ( ); this decree was a ruse, Aeschines claims, to prevent those ambassadors from being at ermopylae for an impor-tant meeting of the Amphictyonic Council, the body that governed the sanctuaries at Delphi (Aeschin. .). In another passage, Aeschines makes a complicated argu-ment that Demosthenes manipulated the Council into passing a certain probouleuma for consideration by the Assembly (Aeschin. .). And again, Aeschines criticizes Callias for delivering, as his own words, a speech that De-mosthenes had written for him (Aeschin. .). In his turn, Demosthenes claimed that a cabal was formed against him (), that set in motion all sorts of indictments, audits, and impeachments (,,). Aeschines claims that impeachment () was of-ten used when a prosecutor preferred to argue a case be-fore the Assembly, thinking that it would not be successful if argued before a jury (Aeschin. .).

T D B G e Athenians themselves were well aware of the potential dangers of direct democracy as exercised by the Assembly, and the orators, particularly, mention them o en. Demos-thenes says, A man can do no greater wrong than by telling


lies to a popular assembly; for, where the political system is based upon speeches, how can it be safely administered if the speeches are false? (Dem. .). He complains of partisanship and the dangers it poses to orderly process: You conduct your politics by syndicates (); each syndicate has an orator for chairman, with a general under him, and three hundred to do the shouting. (Dem. .). He complains that the Assembly was given to hyste-ria, describing how, on one occasion, someone broke into the Parthenon and stole a few oars, and at the ensuing meeting of the Assembly all those coming forward to speak ( ) cried that the democracy was overthrown and all the laws were null and void (Dem. .). Aeschines complains that actions by the Assembly could interfere with justice, noting an occasion on which a jury acquitted someone of corruption, not based on the evidence, but on the fact that the Assembly, earlier, had awarded him a crown (Aeschin. .). He also complains of the reverse, that lawsuits (or the threat thereof) could stand in the way of proper deliberation in the Assembly (Aeschin. .).

e most famous example of the Assembly behaving rashly and inconsistently comes from Xenophon. He de-scribes the case of the generals at the battle of Arginousae in , who were accused of failing to rescue the sur-vivors of the ships that had sunk in the battle (the account begins at Xen. Hell. ..). ese men were put on trial for their lives, and when the Prytaneis refused to put the mat-


ter to a vote in the Assembly, arguing that the proceedings were illegal (the generals should have been tried individu-ally, not all at once), the Assembly overrode them, and the Prytaneis gave in out of fear of the crowd (Xen. Hell. .. Xen. Hell. ..). e generals were condemned to death and executed, but a er it was too late, the Athenians had a change of heart, and the Assembly voted a complaint against those who had misled them ( ) (Xen. Hell. ..).

e aff air of the Arginousae generals was one of the dark-est moments of the Athenian democracy, an over-reaction following the temporary oligarchic revolution of .

Christopher W. Blackwell

S W CVictor Ehrenberg, e Greek State, nd English Edition

(Methuen, ) .A.W. Gomme, e Population of Athens in the Fi h and

Fourth Centuries B.C. (Blackwell, ) .S. Hornblower and A. Spawforth edd., e Oxford Classi-

cal Dictionary, rd Edition (Oxford, ) [ OCDOCDOCD ].

assembly - stoa assembly convened the very next morning (dem. ... nd english edition (methuen, ......

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